


Kindness

by MegumitheGreat



Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Comatose Cloud, Escape, Guilty Pleasures, Human Experimentation, M/M, One Shot, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Indulgent, Starvation, Zack's Last Stand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:27:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28180131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegumitheGreat/pseuds/MegumitheGreat
Summary: After leaving Banora and managing to come near Mideel, Zack tries to find someone to help Cloud.  Succumbing to his own exhaustion, he entrusts someone with an account of what happened in Nibelheim.
Relationships: Zack Fair & Cloud Strife
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	Kindness

**Author's Note:**

> Guilty pleasure fic once again! I saw a tweet that someone had made about Zack's journey back to Midgar. While I incorrectly thought a stop was Mideel (it was actually Banora), I decided to do a little one about Mideel. The tweet had mentioned something about Zack never really expressing all the trauma he had experienced in captivity (Cissnei: "What did they do to you in there?" Zack: "You know...this and that..."), and I remember a line that Zack says in Banora ("Why does everyone shove their problems onto me?" [paraphrased]) that's just sad. He bottled it all up and continued to take care of Cloud.

“We’re almost there, Cloud…” Zack panted. He dragged his friend through the forest surrounding the hot spring town named Mideel. “We’ll get you to a doctor. They can help us—I know they can.”

How long had it been since they escaped from Nibelheim? The days were spent clawing their way back to Midgar or at least somewhere that wasn’t anywhere close to where they had been tortured while the nights had been spent looking for some sort of sustenance. Even when Zack did find something to eat, it wasn’t long before he threw it back up and doubled over in pain. Why couldn’t he eat? Or maybe, he could but whatever he did just wasn’t edible. He couldn’t tell. Since he had woken up, his mind had been in a haze. Recognizing whatever he thought he knew took more energy than before, and on some days, he couldn’t bring himself to think or move. Then he felt like crying. He had to protect Cloud, but if he couldn’t even protect himself, what was he good for?

He tripped and stumbled over tree roots and uneven ground, eventually laying next to the unconscious blond-haired man next to him. He wanted nothing more than to provide him shelter and nourishment, but he was running out of time. At least, he thought so.

“I have to keep going,” he moaned. “I have to protect him.” He had enough energy to push himself up. The second he tried to crawl while holding Cloud’s hand, he fell flat on his empty stomach again. “Cloud, I won’t let you die. I swear…on my honor as SOLDIER…I’ll get help for you.” There was a little whimper, and he realized that it came from his body. Then a sob. And then the almost silent hissing of an absent scream. “Cloud…I’m so sorry…!” And just like that, his eyes rolled back as the forest became a canyon of darkness, and he was at the bottom of its ravine.

When he came to, Zack found himself resting in a bed with an IV needle inserted into the largest vein in his right hand. At first, in a flash, his limbs had been buckled down and a bridle with a towel wrapped around it had been placed between his mandible and jaw. He couldn’t even turn his head; the strap around his neck was the tightest of all.

A man with a white coat and circle glasses approached him like an apparition. In his hand was a syringe so big that Zack was sure that it would completely cut through his blood vessels instead of just puncture them. Unable to do anything about it, he whimpered and cried and begged to be let go. His arm stung and ached, and he remembered watching out of the corner of his eye that the skin of his arm had be cut deeply and spread apart. Something had been placed inside. Since then, he had been subject to the most inhumane of tortures.

And if that all happened to him, what happened to Cloud? His screams called for the younger man, though muffled as they sounded. At some point after all the screaming, he was running out of air. The bridle made it difficult to breathe, and getting so excited while restrained risked broken limbs. So, with his resistance waning, Zack hopelessly prayed that his best friend was safe.

“You’re alright now, young man,” a kinder voice than he remembered to be of Hojo told him. “It’s okay. We’re not going to hurt you.”

The nightmare dissipated, and Zack found himself in the care of a man much older than Hojo with kind hazel eyes behind half-moon lenses. Still, he didn’t know any better. What if he was a consort of Hojo’s? Once a puppy in the eyes of his mentor, Zack the old, wounded, and abused dog whined at the doctor’s comforting touch.

“Hush, hush, it’s alright,” the doctor said again. “You’ve been without proper food for a long time, haven’t you? Trying to give you something solid will only make you sick. I’ll prepare some soup first, alright?”

Zack whined again, but this time it was obvious he was concerned for the one that was found with him. The doctor reassured him that he was in the bed next to him. Then he left for a moment. In that short time alone, Zack’s mind went off again. He couldn’t believe this doctor wanted to help him. He couldn’t believe that Cloud was safe and being cared for. This place was a prison, and they were consorts with that demon of a man Hojo, and he was being prepped for yet another torture. What would it be this time? Electroshock again? Hydro again? Have bits and pieces of his skin cut away? Have his brain be probed and lesioned? The endless possibilities of what could happen in the next moment was too much, and the monitor beeped fast and incessantly.

The doctor returned with a bowl of warmed soup as promised. Zack, stiff and wary, lay still. He watched his every move. Every breath sounded like it was coming from a steam engine.

“I apologize for the restraints,” the doctor sincerely said. “The ones who brought you in said you were seizing. It’s not good practice, but had I not restrained you, the monitor and equipment would have fallen on you. We don’t have a lot of room here at our office.” He undid the one around his neck. “The bridle was also meant to keep you from biting your tongue or cracking your teeth.”

Zack watched him silently. The doctor cautiously loosened the restraints around his wrists. He was prepared for his new patient to grab him by the throat and strangle him. He had something that would knock him out if he so much as tried to pull his legs out from the straps.

“Now, I’m going to hand you the bowl. Can you feed yourself?” He took the bridle off. “That’s better, isn’t it?”

“Where…am…I?” Zack asked him. He had been speaking fine before; why did language feel so unfamiliar? “Cloud? Cloud! Cloud! Where’s Cloud!?”

“Is that the other young man’s name? Like I told you, he’s in the bed next to you. His condition is more severe.”

“He’s got…mako…poisoning! He’s…sick!” Zack panicked. “I need to get help!”

“It’s alright, it’s alright. My assistant has him on fluids.” The doctor handed him the bowl with a towel underneath. “Can you tell me what happened?”

At once, Zack clammed up. He ate the soup, nervously looking around and shaking. The anxiety was again bearing down too much on him, and he broke down crying, wailing like a trapped soul. The doctor immediately took the bowl from him and held his head to his chest.

“Let it all out,” he said. “It’s okay. You’re safe here.” He patted his back and rubbed his arm as he hugged him. When Zack finally calmed down maybe ten minutes later, he calmly asked him how he ended up in Mideel.

“M-Mideel…? We made it to Mideel?” Zack shuddered.

“Yes, though I’m surprised. Typically, no one ever makes it here without a boat or a chocobo or even an airship.” He asked him what happened again.

“I…I don’t remember…” he replied. “I…We…Hojo…did something to us…made us into monsters…” Zack rifled through his fading memories. “Torture…he tortured…us…tortured Cloud. I heard him scream and cry. I watched him lose a part of his soul…I couldn’t protect him…!” He glanced around again. “C-Cloud…I need to be with him…!”

The doctor handed him back the soup and sat down in a chair. He had no clipboard or anything. He only had his pitiful eyes. “Tell me what happened while he gets rest.”

Through the developing headache, he recounted what he could. Hojo and his aides had done unspeakable things to them. When the doctor mentioned electroshock therapy and hydrotherapy, Zack flinched. It was in the beginning that Hojo had submitted them to such techniques to help counter the psychological effects of whatever procedure he had done to them. Hojo had known that they had been proven not at all helpful in the remediation of any psychopathy, especially in relation to the problems they had developed. The cutting of the skin and probing of the brain—those were things that Zack had been expecting but never happened, save for whatever surgery was done, before being forgotten in the basement of the Shinra manor. He remembered that they had each been introduced to other samples like them or monsters that lived in the area with desirable DNA. Upon those memories, Zack curled up tightly.

“But…Cloud got the worst of it. He…had killed Sephir—a-ah…!” His head felt like a drill was going into it. “He killed him, and Hojo thought he was something like a monster and a human together. He put him through so much…I only watched. I couldn’t do anything…! But, old man, if I tell anyone, no one will believe me…! When I get back to Midgar, I can’t tell anyone…! S-Shin-Ra…will kill us…! I have to be strong for Cloud, but I can’t take it anymore…! I’m scared for him—for us…!”

The doctor only listened to him even as he began to cry and chew on his dirty nails. “I can’t save us. I’m no hero. But I can’t let Cloud know how scared I am…he looks up to me…! He wanted to be in SOLDIER, but if he had been from the beginning…no, no, no-no-no…”

He began to scratch at his arm in an area that was unusually discolored. It was bruised from a series of injections. The doctor gently told him not to touch it, bandaged it, and took his hands.

“It sounds like you were in something awful. Rest here for as long as you like; I won’t charge you and I’ll close the clinic to the public. I know Shin-Ra and their corrupt ways. If anything gets out, they will come here. But don’t worry, child, I will hide you. I will treat your friend as best as I can.”

“You can treat Cloud…?” Zack asked him with a fatigued smile. “Please, above all else, heal _him_. When we start to move again…at least, I won’t have to worry about him.”

**Author's Note:**

> Perhaps this one was a bit too emotional and OOC for Zack in hindsight, but I also like to think that Zack really bonded with Cloud during this time. Having to watch him like this...it surely wasn't easy for him...


End file.
